Naruto: Phantom of Konoha
by Lightning-kun
Summary: A mysterious force causes two worlds to collide as two Nine Tailed Foxes become one, and a legendary hero fuses with our favorite blonde...The Phantom of Konoha strikes now! But will this otherworldly power help defend against akatsuki? Mentions of maplestory things, mostly skills and one monster...besides that it's all naruto all the time. Rated M for language for now...
1. Prologue

__So guys...it's been a while. What can I say, life has been hectic. Disappointed in the review count for P3PXNaruto fic and I lost track of pokemonified...and I played maplestory alot at my girlfriends house(since I can't play it on my mom's laptop and we can't fit our old desktop in this goddamned trailer.) and I absolutely LOVED Phantom that just came out. Suddenly I thought "OMFG WHAT IF NARUTO COULD BE LIEK PHANTOM OMGOMG" yeah...

Disclaimer: Phantom belongs to Korea, Naruto belongs to Japan. I live in neither country, so what does that tell you?

k-

_A single card falls from the sky, leaving a trail of feathers in the night..._

_Phantom..._

_As the Black Mage's curse slowly froze the five heroes, a mysterious nine tailed fox spoke in the dead Empress Aria's voice, before disappearing along with one of the encased heroes._

_Phantom..._

_Come with me..._

_To a new world..._

_The world she dreamed of..._

_Isn't dead yet._

__k-

October 10th, day of Kyuubi incident.

The Kyuubi was surrounded by a flash of blue light, then a yellow light, before a cracking sound was heard and everything went silent. No Kyuubi, no fighting, nothing. In the forests of Konoha, lay two dead bodies resting with a newborn child with blonde hair and a symbol on his stomach. This was the sight that Hiruzen Sarutobi came across.

"Dammit...the reckless fools..." Hiruzen picked up a piece of ice on the ground, before breaking it in his hands. While he couldn't comprehend why there was ice in the forest, he had more pressing issues to attend to...like preparing funerals and trying to figure out what to do with baby Naruto. "Dog, Cat, tell everyone to stop panicking...and that the Kyuubi has been dealt with."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The anbu quickly ran off to tell all the ninjas and civilians alike that the battle- no, massacre, was over. With a heavy toll...the life of their beloved Hokage.

"Minato...curse you for dieing before me..." Hiruzen sobbed and chuckled sadly. "Now...how to break the news to the council..."

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"Kill the beast!"

"Train the Jinchuuriki to be our secret weapon!"

"The Uchiha clan will adopt and train the boy."

"Nay, the Hyuuga's will train the boy to be loyal to the village."

"Ha! The Inuzuka's have the best loyalty techniques available...with us, the boy would never betray anyone in this village!"

"Troublesome...how about no one gets the boy? Any clan with a Jinchuuriki would have to much sway in the village."

Silence.

Apparently logic makes all argument impossible.

Sweat dropping, Hiruzen, who took back the mantle of the Hokage seat, coughed loudly to gain the council's attention. "I believe Shikaku has the best idea...as much as I hate leaving the boy alone, he must remain an orphan...for everyone's sakes. He will be enrolled in the Ninja Academy as soon as he reaches a suitable age, so he will be trained just like every other ninja, not a secret weapon Danzo." Danzo looked ready to argue, but his rival's glare made his words die in his throat. "Proceeding along, I must make clear that the fact that Naruto is the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi **will** remain a secret...am I clear?"

"...Hai, Hokage-sama." Some answered right away, while others like the elders- especially Danzo, hesitated.

"Good...Dismis-" Hiruzen was suddenly interrupted by the doors to the room bursting open, frantic anbu agents looking disheveled.

"H-Hokage-sama...bad news. Someone knew about the Kyuubi...and it spread fast. Most of the village is calling for the boy's blood."

Cursing under his breath, he made a quick decision. "Council, you are dismissed. Anbu, all the villagers must be present before the tower for an announcement. **Now."**

**k-**

Looking at the village from the top of the Hokage tower, Hiruzen sighed as he saw the hate in the villagers' eyes...he had thought a lot about what to do, and he came upon what seemed to be the only choice available. "Citizens of Konohagakure no Sato, today we have faced a terrible enemy. Many lives were lost, but alas, the beast was contained. The baby it was contained in is a hero to us all, for had he not been born at that time we would all have perished. Cast aside your hate and prejudice, and praise the boy for what he is...a jinchuuriki, a real, live **HERO!**"

Several murmurs went through the crowd, before the entire village erupted in a mix of cheers and boo's...the village was equally divided between hate and worship. Hiruzen sighed, before dismissing the village and going to his new...well, old...desk to do paperwork and make more hard decisions, like how to repair the village while protecting it, while still upholding the strong image Konoha has produced since the moment it was founded. Hopefully, the village hidden in the leaves wouldn't be trifled with by someone wishing to cause the spark to burn the whole tree...roots and all.

k-

Don't fret, next chapter comes in an hour. Just had to stop it here, otherwise the prologue would've begun to creep into the storyline, and we can't have that happen can we xD


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter two has arrived...well actually this is chapter one since the other was a prologue..? Agh, I don't care! Its almost 4am and I has inspiration! And no life cuz I live in a trailer park! =w= Sob...

Disclaimer: Nexon is a bunch of trolls and Naruto is safely being run into the ground by Kishimoto last time I checked...I am neither...I think...Fuck?

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Five years after the Kyuubi attack, life was normal around Konoha...

"Phantom struck again! My beautiful vegetables are gone...all that was left was a single card!"

Wait, wait. I think we missed something down the line. Hold up...

Okay, THREE years after the Kyuubi attack...

"Die demon!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

BAM EXPLOSION

Insert Kyuubi speech

Naruto gains powers

…..

How pissed would you be?

Try this again.

k-

Five years after the Kyuubi attack, life was normal around Konoha...

"Phantom struck again! My beautiful vegetables are gone...all that was left was a single card!"

Wait, wait. I think we missed something down the line. Hold up...

Okay, THREE years after the Kyuubi attack...

"Agh, Hokage-jiji was mean today...to busy with paperwork my butt!" A small blonde boy walked the streets alone. While only three years old, he walked and talked as if much older. Walking with a clean gait despite the short legs, with a sizable vocabulary from helping the leader of the village with unimportant paperwork. Since the boy was still just that, a boy, he preferred to use his childish words. Thus, we come to this:

"Oi, demon-gaki, come 'ere a sec. Got somethin' for ya." A gruff voice from an alley said. Naruto raised his eyebrow at the old man before shrugging and walking towards the alley. If he got in trouble he could flare his chakra like Hiruzen had taught him and the anbu would flock towards him...heh, anbu...flocking...ahem, anyway.

Naruto walked towards the strange man, and suddenly a deck of simple playing cards was tossed at the child. Fumbling for a second, the boy caught the deck of cards and looked at them, confused. "What are these for?"

The man smiled for a second before becoming gruff again. "I'ma teach ya 'ow to play rummy. If ya beat me, you get to keep 'em, and if you lose, we get to 'eep you!" Naruto suddenly noticed that there were a lot more than just one person there...more like seven persons. Naruto looked really nervous before calming down. Hokage-jiji said he had awesome luck, right? Wasn't rummy a game of luck...or was it skill? Crap.

Sitting in the provided, the gruff man rambled through the rules. Seemed simple enough, match straights of the same suit or three to four of a kind of one number...discard and pick up every turn...first to play all their cards and discard once without leaving what was called a rummy won...played to five-hundred points...blah blah...sounded easy...right?

They played a practice hand. Naruto had pairs of aces and jacks, but the gruff man went out before the boy could play them, leaving him with a negative score.

"Heh, 'ope your luck 'mproves kid, otherwise we get to have fun tonight." The gruff man said, getting chuckles from his friends. Naruto gulped, hoping not to find out what fun meant.

Six hands and lots of complaining from both sides later, they sat at a bypass. Either one could win, with both being at exactly four-hundred ninety-five points. Whoever had the biggest hand will win. As if drawing out the dramatic scene as much as possible, the deck decided to be an asshole and make it so they had to use the entire deck, leaving neither with negative points. The final score was...

"Six-fifteen to six-hundred...shit kid, you have the devil's luck I swear. A'ight, you get to keep that deck and walk, but don't take to 'ong, other'ise we'll have our fun anyway. Shoo kid."

Naruto cheered happily and picked up the cards and put them in the box. As he happily trotted away, the gruff man smirked before signaling his friends to start plan B...

AKA knocking the boy out and hiding him in the warehouse.

k-

Naruto woke up to darkness and pain.

Mostly pain.

There was a lot of darkness though.

Anyway.

The same gruff voice sounded out, seemingly annoyed. "Feh, the brat woke up before we could finish preperations. Oh well, not like he can do much anyway..." Naruto quickly panicked and tried to flare his chakra like the old man taught him, but found he couldn't. A voice behind him chuckled, and a female voice rang out.

"Heh, nice try kiddie, but we sealed off your chakra so things didn't get interrupted...by the Hokage or your special prisoner."

Naruto blinked. He was to young to have a job, let alone a ninja or prison warden. What prisoner?

"Preperations completed boss-man, knock the kid back out."

Chop, then darkness for Naruto.

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Naruto once again woke to pain, but it was much brighter this time. Once his vision stopped blurring together, the blonde took notice of his predicament. Tied down to a table by rope and shirt off, he was definitely afraid of what was going to happen, if anything. Maybe he would just starve or freeze to death? Who knows.

Abruptly, Naruto's thoughts were stopped by an invisible force slashing and stabbing his torso, leaving scratches on and holes in his chest and arms. Crying out in pain, he was silenced by a swift chop to the throat, not powerful enough to kill him or crush his windpipe, but definitely hard enough to shut the blonde up for a while. Tears sprung into his eyes while he wondered what was happening to him, and why.

More slashes and stabs came from the invisible force, until suddenly, they stopped. He wondered why, until suddenly he noticed a peculiar sound. Looking towards his wounds as best he could, he saw what could only be described as his body steaming, along with a strange symbol on his stomach. After his wounds fully healed, the symbol went away. Scared and confused, Naruto tried to struggle, only to be silenced and knocked out again by a pressure on his entire body.

k-

Naruto awoke to just darkness this time, no pain. He was noticeably wet, and found himself standing in knee-high water. He looked for a light of some sort, only to find a red glow slightly illuminating a path forward. Following the glow, the boy found himself greatly confused as he suddenly transported from a sewer-like setting to a bright plain surrounded by trees and marble archways. Sitting in a cage were what seemed to be two creatures conjoined by the hip...and a bunch of flowing tails behind them. One set gray, the other orange-red. Two sets of eyes stared at him; one calm and calculating, the other, angry and menacing. The first to speak was the gray side.

"I see our container has entered our domain at last, Kurama."

"Feh, obviously, Aria." The other angrily replied. "And what did I say about using my real name, girl?"

Rolling her eyes, the now-named Aria sniped back, "Not to, not that I care, obviously!"

Completely confused, Naruto just stood there and watched with his head tilted, blonde hair tilting with it. Noticing it's host discomfort, Kurama snorted and spoke. "I grow tired of this conversation already. I'll finish my part fast so I can sleep...I am Kurama, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox or Kyuubi no Youko. The Yondaime sealed me inside of you blah blah blah, the annoying flea died and left you with me. Now don't you dare wake me up unless completely necessary." Kurama put its snout on its paws again and instantly started to snore.

While Naruto freaked out and tried to make sense of what was going on, the gray side-Aria, wondered how to break the even more disturbing news to the boy.

"Ahem." Aria pronounced both syllables evenly and precisely, catching the freaking out blonde's attention. "Now then, what Kurama said was true, he is sealed inside of you...but you are its container, not the Kyuubi itself." Seeing Naruto exhale in relief, Aria began the new topic at hand. "Now...to put it bluntly...I'm from another dimension and/or world, and was sealed inside you along with Kurama and someone I brought...but instead of being completely sealed, parts of that person have merged with you, giving you traits of his. Your devilish luck, your charm even with people who hate you, and of course, your swiftness. None of his real skills have become one with you yet, but if you train like I suspect you will, you will, in due time, completely absorb his skills and techniques...Um, are you listening?"

"Buh...huh...fuh...wha?"

After repeating what she said a few times, they got back on track.

"I used to be Aria, the Empress of a place called Ereve. But after I died, the powers I absorbed from my...friend...Shinsoo, turned me into a creature...a Ninetailed Fox. I used the last of my powers to transport me and my friend to this place...And now I am being merged with your world's ninetailed fox, as only one can truly exist. I regret to tell you that I will no longer have a body in this world, instead, my consciousness will fuse with Kurama's and we will become a new being." Naruto nodded along, pretending he knew what the hell she was talking about. She just sighed and continued. "My...friend...I brought along, he was known as Phantom. You will learn more about him and yourself as you grow, but for now, I bless you with the last powers of Shinsoo, along with your first taste of the pride of Phantom. Escape your bindings and live another day, young one."

Shining light, lightheadedness, and a surge of strange power filled Naruto before he returned to the real world.

k-

"Wha...what? The Jinchuuriki is breaking free! Stop hi- urk!" A card flew from the, now free, blonde's hand, slicing the throat of the speaker. The gruff man from before stepped forward and bowed to the blonde, before revealing a single explosive tag, which detonated in his hands.

**!**

The entire village shook slightly, as a ball of flame escaped into the air from the now decimated warehouse. As the building collapsed and the anbu and Hokage arrived on the scene, they all stood amazing at a single figure standing in the rubble, surrounded by a light, seemingly keeping him alive. As the light faded, the figure collapsed, and was rushed to the hospital by the Hokage.

After extensive treatment and healing, the Hokage was shocked to see Naruto breathing shallowly on the hospital bed.

k-=====================

After Naruto healed, he told the Hokage what he could remember, which wasn't much, as he didn't remember the power he used or the talk in his head until months later. He never told the Hokage the full truth, he just started training. And training hard.

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Five years after Kyuubi attack:

"Phantom struck again! My beautiful vegetables are gone...all that was left was a single card!" A random civilian shop owned shouted into the street, causing a commotion in the streets. Meanwhile, a figure watched, chuckling from his hiding place.

"Hehe, operation successful. Time to return to home base" He said to himself. He jumped from tree to tree until he landed in front of an apartment. He walked inside and took off his disguise, revealing blonde hair and blue eyes. "Hehe, that'll teach the bastard to deny service to Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto went around the apartment, cleaning things up before the Hokage came, as he knew he would.

"So, Phantom strikes again, Naruto?" A voice whispered from behind the boy.

"Holy shit! Oh, kami don't scare me like that Jiji!" Naruto exclaimed before getting popped in the head by a stern-looking Hiruzen.

"Watch your mouth, you're still only five, Naruto-kun." The old man said scathingly. Naruto made a face that said 'yeah, yeah...' before going to his kitchen.

"Want some veggies old man? Heh." Hiruzen sighed before smiling.

"Make me some salad, Little Phantom."

"Aww, don't call me that Jiji!" Naruto pouted before pulling out a bunch of vegetables he stole from the civilian merchant. Food that was free tasted better, right?

"Don't forget the dressing and cucumbers, _Littlest Phantom._" Hiruzen teased, causing the blonde boy to turn red in anger.

"Shut up old man, or you can make your own stolen-food-salad!"

k-

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand Done! Jesus penis that was a long chapter...its 5am now! HOLY PENIS!

By the way, tell me if I spell stuff wrong...or have bad grammar...or whatever the fuck I do thats stupid. Kthx

Review please, I may have no life but I can easily just read fanfics instead of write them if I don't feel motivated by my readers :P


	3. Chapter 2

Hey guys, back again already for chapter three eheheh~ Gonna do my review comments cuz I can :D

Warning: This chapter is plot disguised as lots of Crack and Filler.

demon(anon)- Dfuq did I just read? O-o anyone help decipher that review?

Pyr00tje- Longer they shall be, original...I hope o_O;;

animefanbren-Thanks for the review :D I will take it as far as I can!

Kitsune-bi no Sennin- Thanks for the confidence, it helps a lot. And I couldn't decide whether to make the reference more clear or not, but I guess I will this chapter.

Phantom is the Thief class Hero in the popular game Maplestory. He uses a cane as a primary weapon and cards as a secondary. He has the ability to copy some of other classes' skills, such as a Cleric's Heal skill, kind of like the game version of a Sharingan, but more strict about what skills can be stolen. The Phantom storyline is basically: He loves the empress Aria of Ereve, she dies at the hands of the Black Mage's Envoy. Phantom joins the other 4 heroes to defeat black mage and seal him away. Black mage curses the heroes, freezing them in ice for thousands of years...except in this story phantom fuses with Naruto. Naruto WILL use the skill thieving ability, just like Sasuke will use his friggin' Sharingan. Except Naruto will have a limit and will have to discard skills after a while to accept new ones, while sharingan users remember them forever(?).

Anyway, disclaimer then story.

Don't own Maplestory, Nexon does and they are a bunch of trolls. Don't own Naruto, but I wish someone, ANYONE besides Kishimoto did...

k-

Literally a day after last chapter ended:

Naruto walked the streets in his normal orange and black shirt and shorts. He wasn't going anywhere in particular, he just wanted to wander the streets and see what happened. The blonde turned down a few streets and weaved a pattern across the city with his aimless walking. Today was pretty quiet, only a small amount of people walked the streets even though it was past noon. Wondering why, the blonde went up to one of the few store clerks that was indifferent to him.

"Oi, Keisuke, I'll bite. Where is everybody?" Naruto asked with a hint of mischief. The glasses-wearing clerk turned his head and nodded towards the boy, before pointing towards the more populated sections of the village.

"How do you forget yer own birthday, kid? Now skedaddle, I need to go get a stand set up before I lose my spot." The man said before walking off with a sign and a box. Naruto frowned, it was that time already? That still didn't answer his question though...why is it a ghost town when more people should be rushing around like chickens with their heads chopped off? He just shrugged and walked back towards his apartment. His birthday was best spent inside, after all.

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Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in his office, reading a few papers quietly. Tonight started the festivities for the celebration of the village's survival against the Kyuubi, and Hiruzen couldn't be less worried about the festival set up. Neither he nor the boy who's birthday was today showed up to them, except for him to give a customary speech that never changed.

Despite it being a sunny and cheerful day, the aged kage could feel a slight chill in the air, a sign of the constantly changing seasons. Sighing and standing up to stretch, Hiruzen glanced outside and noticed a familiar shock of blonde hair wandering through the streets in the district, talking to a few people on his way back home. Smiling slightly, Hiruzen watched the boy as far as he could before the bright blonde hair disappeared into a building. Sitting back down to do more paperwork, Hiruzen continued with his day, unaware of the hidden plans of some of the villagers...

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Secret Location in Konoha:

A dark room, so dark that nothing could be seen. In this room, a meeting took place.

"How goes the plan?" A simple voice asked calmly.

"Swimmingly~" A female voice tittered happily, annoying the rest of her fellow members, who were all male.

"Tch, you're to lax, you know that?" A voice, belonging to what sounded like a child, said.

"And you're to small, you know that?" The simple voice spoke up again with sarcasm.

"Mean...I'm older than I seem and you know that!"

"Yeah, yeah...let's continue with the problem at hand. How will we get the boy to the meeting place?"

"Oh, leave it to me!" The childish voice exclaimed. "I could easily pass for someone his age, you know?" No objections were made. "Hehe, I get to make a new...friend~"

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With Naruto, things were going as well as could be. No one bothered him, he got to talk to a few almost-friendly-acquaintances, and no bothersome mobs chased him today. All was going great.

"To great, I suppose..." Naruto muttered when he felt the presence of someone behind him. Turning around, the blonde was surprised to see a boy around his age there. The strange boy had white hair, semi-spiked into some sort of Mohawk hairstyle, and wearing some sort of coat with fur on the collar. "Err...Hi?"

"Hello! My name is Aran~ What's your name?"

Naruto blinked. This had to be the strangest thing he's ever experienced first-hand. "Uh, I'm Naruto...What do you want exactly?"

The boy grinned and grabbed Naruto's hand before he started to run in a random direction. "Come on Naruto! Let's go play a game at the park!"

Naruto just sweat dropped and let himself be dragged. "Isn't the park in the other direction?"

"Is that so~"

'Kami help me' Naruto mentally sobbed to himself.

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"Here we are Naruto!" The boy exclaimed, suddenly stopping in front of a small alcove of trees."

'Yeah, this is definitely not the park. What's this kid up to?' Naruto eyed the white haired boy, casually pocketing his hands. Naruto followed behind the smaller boy, wandering deeper into the dark forest. 'Am I going to get raped? This seems like one of those bad movie setups.' Naruto though randomly before shaking his head. Too many shows at night. Suddenly the boy stopped and grinned at him.

"Surprise, Naruto-san..." The boy said before swiftly moving back into the darkness. Surprised, Naruto tried to chase after, only to be stopped by firecrackers in his path. Suddenly, the whole forest erupted with bright light as hundreds of harmless firecrackers went off and the peal of fireworks ripped through the air.

Naruto, so taken off guard, yelled the most embarrassing thing he ever said in his life. "OH KAMI-SAMA, RAPE! RAPE! I NEED AN ADULT!"

Naruto closed his eyes while the lights died down. When the brightness disappeared fully, he opened his eyes to possible the most awkward situation ever.

There were dozens of villagers hiding in the forest holding up a giant sign that said, "Happy Birthday Naruto Uzumaki" on it, except now the villagers had shocked looks upon their faces, shuffling their feet awkwardly and looking at the now six year-old boy.

Naruto started to blush before adopting a dead-pan expression. "This was a terrible idea, you all know that right?" Several facepalms rang out across the field. Naruto sighed and walked towards the embarrassing sight of grown adults and small children avoiding his line of vision.

"So...uh...Happy birthday?" Aran appeared from behind the sign, looking sheepish. Naruto just sighed.

"I swear to kami...I don't even care why you did this, just don't do it again guys."

"These little parties won't be necessary after I get the boy!" A voice shouted from behind the sign, shocking the villagers into scrambling away. Naruto just facepalmed slowly.

"I hate my fucking birthday."

The darkly dressed figure threw three kunai at the blonde, before rushing him. Naruto swiftly dodged the kunai and picked up a stick from the ground. 'This is going to make me look like an idiot' Naruto thought, before calling on the small amount of Phantom's power he had. Naruto dashed towards the man, twirling the stick in his hands. "Double Entendre!" Naruto whispered, quickly slashing twice with his makeshift weapon. A snapping sound was heard as the stick and the man's arm were broken. Shouting in pain, the figure stopped his dash and fell to the ground, clutching his useless arm. Naruto sighed and threw away the broken stick, before going over and sitting on the man's chest, pinning him down. Naruto made a simple handsign and pulsed his chakra the way Hiruzen taught him in the past. After a few seconds, the Professor himself stood in the disaster zone, completely serious.

"Now then...time to see who this masked marauder is..." Hiruzen said, before grabbing the mask and ripping it off the man in a painful way. Everyone blinked at who was underneath the mask.

"Ehehe...hey sensei?" A man with long white hair and red lines under his eyes appeared in a puff of smoke, signaling the end to a transformation technique.

"Explain." Hiruzen demanded.

"Ehehe, well, you see sensei..."

k-

Sensei will have to wait til next chapter. This chapter was pretty much crack filler, as I said before, but there is a lot of underlying plot there. Oh and, yay for obvious maple reference in Aran? I don't know if Aran will appear more in the story besides randomly in the village, depends on your reviews and if I want to do certain shenanigans. Anyway, drop some reviews and I'll be back tonight or tomorrow or something. Ja ne~


	4. Chapter 3

Alright time for a new chapter! Oh and just so you guys know, the Uchiha Massacre hasn't happened yet in my story. Soon, but not yet.

animefanbren- Kinda the point lol

Guest(Anon)- Thanks :D and ikr! Hell there is barely any good maplestory fics period. :I

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own Maplestory. Both belong to their respective trolls...I mean owners.

k-

"Explain." Hiruzen commanded again.

"Ehehe..." Jiraiya chuckled nervously, knowing he might have gone to far in his sensei's eyes. "Well, you see sensei...I was testing him! Simple as that." Hiruzen didn't seem amused, gesturing for the white haired man to continue. "...I heard rumors from traveling merchants that there was a mysterious thief in Konoha, someone known as Phantom, because you only knew he was there if he let you know. A single card was left at every crime scene, but nothing was ever really done about it. So I came to the conclusion that it had to be someone close to you..." Jiraiya glanced over at the confused blonde boy. The sage suddenly had a serious face. "And who else besides the Jinchuuriki of Konoha to be as mysterious as possible while being great friends with the leader of the village?"

Hiruzen gave Jiraiya a sharp look. "Jiraiya, you should know better than to reveal village secrets." Hiruzen said, knowing that Naruto already knew of his burden. Jiraiya shrugged as best he could while on the ground, before suddenly flipping Naruto, who was still sitting on his chest, and pinning the blonde to the ground instead.

"So gaki! How's about training with the legendary Jiraiya, the Gama Sennin and one of the Densentsu no Sannin?"

"Jiraiya? Where have I heard that name before..." Naruto mumbled to himself, pretty much ignoring the tall man behind him. Naruto snapped his fingers as best he could before exclaiming, "Oh I know where that name is from! That's the author of those pervy books I found in the Old Man's office!" Naruto then gasped. "Oh kami I'm getting pinned to the ground by a pervert, HELP ME OLD MAN!"

Hiruzen and Jiraiya both facepalmed, the serious moment completely ruined by the wild card's outburst. Jiraiya let go of the blonde and pretended to sulk, drawing circles in the dirt. "I'm not a pervert..." Jiraiya mumbled loudly. Suddenly he got up and did a weird pose. "I'm a SUPER Pervert!"

Facepalms.

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Jiraiya and Naruto sat in Ichiraku's Ramen Stand, waiting for their food to come. Hiruzen all but demanded that they get to know each other better.

"So Ero-sennin," Naruto started, using his new nickname for Jiraiya instead of his name, "what kind of training are we talking about?" Jiraiya slumped his shoulders.

"First off, don't call me that kid. Cramps my style. Second, I'm going to be teaching you lots of things, but we need to work more on the physical training before anything else, since you are still young." The toad sage seemed to nod to himself. "Yeah, you're good and all, but you're still to short and skinny to be very useful; gotta get some meat and muscle on those bones, kid."

As if suddenly remembering something, Naruto faced the older man and pointed at his arm. "Speaking of bones, I'm pretty sure I broke that when I hit you. How can you still use it?"

Jiraiya laughed boisterously before ruffling the blonde's hair playfully. "I'm just awesome like that kid." Looking annoyed, Naruto just ended the conversation and waited for their food.

"Oi, Teuchi-ojisan, where's the grub?" Naruto semi-shouted to the chef. "Usually I'd have scared away all the customers by now with my eating habits!"

Chuckling, the ramen chef came out with ramen bowls and placed them in front of his customers. "You two seemed to be having fun, so I waited it out. How many you having tonight Naruto?"

The blonde had a gleam in his eyes as he said, "Ero-sennin is paying." Laughing, Teuchi patted Jiraiya on the back heartily.

"The kid's gonna eat you out of your fortune, Jiraiya-sama." Jiraiya suddenly paled, remembering how much the kid's mother could polish off before getting full.

It was a sad day for the toad sage's wallet, as Naruto ate a good eighteen bowls of ramen before taking pity on his new teacher.

k-

A week later finds Naruto and Jiraiya in a clearing, with Naruto doing basic training, and Jiraiya peeking through the bushes at a few women who were swimming in a river wearing skimpy bathing suits. As Naruto finished his last few push ups, his sensei got up from the bushes and walked over to the log that was their makeshift seat.

"Come sit for a sec, Naruto." Naruto nodded and came over to the log, sitting beside his sensei. "I'm leaving tonight." Naruto looked questioningly at the white haired man. "I have a spy network to keep up with kid, and I need to be out and about a lot. Since you're young and ready to go to the academy next semester, I can't take you with me because I'll be gone for a while. But I will leave you with training instructions. Not a lot, but enough to get you used to training alone, because I won't be able to be there with you all the time."

"I understand, Ero-sensei." Jiraiya sweatdropped at the blonde's 'respectful' name for him. It was the best he was going to get.

"Anyway, kid. The rest of the training is in the scrolls, but I need to teach this to you in a special way." Jiraiya said seriously, before bringing out something Naruto would have never expected.

A bag of water balloons.

"Ero-sennin, you're such a troll."

Jiraiya blinked a few times before speaking. "A troll? Well, anyway, this actually will help you with your training. You use these to train in a special chakra control that will help you learn certain jutsu later on. The only hint I'm giving you is that you have to pop it with your chakra by controlling it in a certain way that isn't common. If you finish this step while I'm gone, find someone named Kakashi Hatake and ask him about part two." Naruto nodded with determination.

"Just watch, I'm going to master all the steps to this before you even get back, Ero-sensei!"

Jiraiya chuckled. "If you do that, I'll give you something special. Designing those steps and mastering them took the creator years, and it took me three months to learn them properly."

Naruto just looked even more determined.

k-

(A couple months later)

"I hate school." Naruto grumbled as he walked to the academy. Today was the first day of the new semester, in which first year students like Naruto would be introduced to classes. Naruto had spied on last semester's classes, and could honestly say that he didn't need to learn any of that crap. The only useful things they taught were the basic jutsu and survival needs! Sighing heavily, Naruto trudged through the halls to his classroom. His sensei was some chunin named Iruka Umino, or something like that. "The old man knows I'm to good for this, so why did he send me to the academy? Gah!"

Frustrated, Naruto walked silently the rest of the way to his class. He opened the door and stepped into the room, instantly noticing a few people he's seen around town before. Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and of course, Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto has seem them at one point or another during his random raids or stake outs as Phantom. Shikamaru spent most of his time at the Nara compound either playing shogi of tending to his clan's deer, whilst Ino usually helped out at her family flower shop. Sasuke trained most of his time away, being one of the Uchiha clan head's prodigious sons. His brother, Itachi, seemed pretty nice, if not drawn into himself.

"Alright class, everyone sit down and shut up!" A voice shouted from behind Naruto, startling the blonde out of his thoughts. Iruka made his way to his desk while all the students sat down next to their friends.

'Friends...maybe that's why the Old Man sent me to the academy...' Naruto thought. Did he really seem so pathetic as to not be able to make friends in the field?

Don't answer that question.

The hours passed fast between introductions and an overview of the first year curriculum. Many of the students from clans, and Naruto, inwardly groaned. This year was going to be so basic and easy for them it wasn't even funny.

k-

"Alright class, dismissed for today. Don't forget to have your parents or guardians sign that slip, it'll let me know who to keep an eye on if you don't!" Iruka said. As everyone started leaving, Naruto raised his hand. "Yes, Naruto?"

"I don't have parents nor do I have guardians besides the Hokage, and this seems a little to unimportant to go to the Hokage for..." Naruto said shyly, knowing this would get the attention of his classmates. He should have waited til they all left! Iruka's eyes softened, before he walked over to Naruto and took the slip from his hands. Naruto looked at Iruka, confused, until he saw Iruka take a pen and sign the slip.

"From now on, I'll look after you for things like this, okay Naruto?" Iruka said, smiling. Naruto nodded in disbelief; no one else would have done that for him, except maybe the Old Man. Naruto and Iruka became painfully aware of the other students when a boy with red markings on his cheeks put his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Just because you don't have parents, doesn't mean there aren't people you can trust right?" The boy said with a grin. "My name's Kiba Inuzuka, and I'll be there for people in need, a future clan head needs strong allies after all!"

Naruto cracked a smile and shoved Kiba's hand off. "You're crazy man."

"Hah! You should see my mom if you think _I'M _the crazy one."

k-

So yeah, Kiba will be Naruto's first friend, because Kiba is under used and I kind of like him. The next chapter has a little more school, the uchiha massacre, then more school. After that will be a time skip to graduation because I've taken long enough to get to the good parts lol. Leave a review telling me what you think or to point out mistakes I missed. Ja ne~


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